BROOKINGS – A family in need will be sleeping better and a couple of local organizations can serve their clients better after Slumberland Furniture in Brookings donated beds recently.
As part of Slumberland’s Homes for the Holidays program, the local store made donations to the Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter, Project Joy and a family that lost its home in a fire.
“Typically the goal is to find partners in our local community that we can channel these mattresses through,” said Barb Jones, co-owner with husband Rob of the local Slumberland store. They wanted to know their donations would help families in need.
The shelter received four Tempurpedic beds, which will stay at the shelter, Project Joy got 10 brand-new mattresses, which were distributed to needy children, and the family received two brand-new mattresses for the children.
Margo Dempsey, executive director of Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter, feels like she won the lottery.
“They are awesome mattresses; they should last us a really, really long time,” she said.
She had trouble expressing what it means to the shelter to have the beds.
“Really, this is huge. We already had people sleeping in them,” she said Thursday. “It’s just made everybody happy.”
Dempsey described how one women sat down and patted the mattress. When Dempsey told her it was brand-new, “she was shocked that someone was so generous like that,” she said.
Dempsey and her team work with people who often leave behind their possessions, sometimes arriving with only the clothes they are wearing. Beaten down mentally and often physically, they need a sanctuary.
“When they can lay on a bed that feels like you’re sleeping on a cloud, it just makes all the difference,” she said.
The beds help, but the shelter still needs things for their clients.
“What we need right now … is alarm clocks. We have five bedrooms and … it seems we’re always giving away the alarm clocks. When they’re starting completely over, they ask if they can have the alarm clock,” Dempsey said.
“We’re not talking fancy clocks or anything; just a clock for every single room,” she stressed.
They also need all kinds of office supplies, and monetary donations can always be used. Sometimes people just need gas cards to get down the road; others left behind their vehicle and need BATA tokens to get to work.
One of the first things the shelter staff often tells clients is to get rid of their cell phone because most can be traced by their abusers. So, they need burner phones and cards with prepaid minutes.
Dempsey’s still stunned by receiving the beds.
“I don’t know how to thank them enough. This is just so awesome,” she said.
That was the Joneses’ goal.
“We’re looking for children who don’t have their own bed or a good bed to sleep on every night. We all know that good sleep is a big part of good health and children thriving, so 10 families were given mattresses through Project Joy this year,” Jones said, adding her store has worked with Project Joy in the past.
“I was contacted personally about the family who lost their home in a fire, and this just happened to coincide with our Homes for the Holidays program this year. So I was most happy to be able to donate those,” Jones said.
“The domestic abuse shelter came to my mind because they constantly serve people in our community in need, both adults and children, so when I made the phone call, they could not have been happier to be receiving new mattresses,” she said.
Homes for the Holidays is a corporate-wide program with 120 Slumberland stores in the Midwest. Jones said over the years, almost 20,000 new mattresses have been donated to children through the program, and local Slumberland owners can decide to participate or not.
“Rob and I just felt very strongly about being able to give back,” said Jones of the decision they made. “Brookings is just an absolutely, incredibly giving community and this was a way for our business to give back to the community that has served us so very well for 40-plus years in Brookings.”
If you would like to donate, contact the Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter at 692-7233 or 807 Onaka Trail, Brookings, SD 57006, or Project Joy at projectjoybrookings.com online.
Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.
